Fall of the Aurors
by BridgeArts2013
Summary: This FanFiction follows the story of the Aurors in the Harry Potter universe. Specifically that of Gawain Robards, who took over from Rufus Scrimgeour as 'Head Auror' when he became the Minister for Magic. A lot of the events and characters where taken from the Harry Potter books however most of the story is separate to the books and it features many original characters.


Gawain stared down drearily, watching a maniacal Belatrix Lestrange struggling against her chains, mouthing silent screams while starring back at him from the front page of the Daily Prophet. The head line read: _Mass Breakout from Azkaban_ and Gawain wondered about what the months ahead would hold for him and for the wizarding world in light of the news.

'Gawain!' repeated a frustrated Wilhelmina Savage, 'are you even listening to me?'

Gawain snapped out of his dreary state, returning to reality he looked up at the young Auror sitting across from him, 'Do you know how busy we're going to be after this breakout?' Gawain replied grimly, gesturing towards the paper lying flat on the table between them. 'As if we didn't have enough to deal with already.'

'Didn't think so,' mumbled Savage. 'I was saying we should go now otherwise we might miss him,' she urged.

'How long have we been partners now?' Gawain asked, looking around the diner. 'We'll go soon… and we won't miss him,' he added as his eyes moved about the room and he watched the muggles engaging in their day to day lives, completely oblivious to the war that was brewing around them.

A waitress moved slowly from table to table clearing dishes whilst purposefully avoiding eye contact with the patrons trying to get her attention. The diner was a grim place, dusty lights hung from the ceiling casting a dim light over the booths that lined the walls. Gawain leaned back, feeling the red leather crumble a little as he pressed his back into the old cushioned seat. Letting out a long breath and running his fingers through his short dark hair, Gawain stood suddenly startling Savage who had been anxiously watching the door, impatient to leave.

'Now we go,' he said, already moving for the heavy wooden door before throwing it open as he and Savage stepped out into the wet street.

A light drizzle persistently rained down from a bleak, dark London sky. Pushing their way through the bustling crowds the pair headed for a small alley. They took a series of winding turns before stopping and pulling out their wands, backs against a damp brick wall. Gawain peered around the corner to see two men with dark robes similar to his. The men huddled together and one of them handed something under his cloak to the other as they talked in hushed whispers. Looking closer Gawain confirmed the one who had handed over the package was Eric Munch, the man he and Savage had been searching for. Eric Munch had, until recently, worked security in the Ministry of Magic. Gawain and Savage had been given the missing wizards case and were responsible for finding out how Munch had gone missing and where he was now.

' _Is that him?_ ' whispered Savage, wishing she could see what was going on around the corner.

Peering closer, Gawain was able to make out the features of the other man and realised that he was Antonin Dolohov; one of the escaped Death Eaters from Azkaban. Suddenly, turning back to his younger partner, he quickly said in a hushed voice, ' _Yes, that's Munch. You need to get him back to the ministry, and try not to hurt him too badly. Remember he's probably under the Imperius curse.'_

 _'And what are you going to do?'_ replied Savage.

But, Gawain didn't wait to explain. Instead, swinging around the corner and raising his wand, he shouted, 'STOP!' and Antonin ran.

Gawain lunged forward in pursuit, out the corner of his eye he could see Munch fumbling for his wand. Vaulting over some rubbish that cluttered the alley, Gawain flicked his wand in Munch's direction and a bright burst of light flashed around his head with a deafening pop.

Dazed and slightly blinded, Munch only caught a glimpse of Gawain's dark robes as he darted after Antonin. He turned just in time to see Savage appear from around the corner wand raised. Panicked, Munch tried again in vain to free his wand from his robe. But then, he felt an invisible rope wind its way around his ankles before the ground pulled out from under him as his face slammed into the paved alley.

Gawain had slowed to a cautious walk now, no longer able to hear the fleeing Death Eater's attempts to push his way through the cluttered narrow alleys and he was wary of a trap. He slowly rounded another corner and as he did he saw Antonin leap out from behind a large stack of pallets, wand raised.

'Arda Kadavra!' cried the Death Eater, a burst of green light shooting from his wand, heading straight for Gawain.

Stepping back while lifting his wand to arc across his body, Gawain just managed to deflect the spell, sending it crashing harmlessly into a nearby wall. Recovering quickly Gawain moved with lightning speed, darting forward he dropped, sliding along the wet ground, feeling the heat from a spell that whizzed over his head. As he stood he brought his wand up, sending out a white torrent that lifted Antonin off his feet and knocked him back some twenty paces.

Antonin lurched in pain. Doubled over and with the wind knocked out of him he swirled his wand, desperately trying to apparate away from the attacking Auror. He felt his wand fly from his hand, landing somewhere out of reach in the dark alley. Panicking now, Antonin scrambled to his feet, barley noticing the Auror bending to retrieve his lost wand. He burst out of the alley and into a bustling crowd making his way through them he headed for a nearby subway hoping his pursuer would not be able to track his movements.

Gawain stepped out into the crowd, his eyes sweeping across the sea of muggles pushing past him but he could see no sign of Antonin.

Gawain swore under his breath, 'Rufus is not going to like this'.

Rufus Scrimgeour sat in a small chair facing the back of his office. His eyes were wide as he stared blankly at an odd looking 'cat clock' hanging on his back office wall. He closed his eyes briefly listening to the rhythmic _tick tock_ of the cat's tail swinging as the clock pendulum, its yellow eyes moving side to side in time with the tail.

'Do you mean to tell me…' Scrimgeour began with a grizzly voice harbouring an irritated tone, 'that you had Antonin Dolohov, a known supporter of the Dark Lord and recent escapee from Azkaban, right in front of you and you let him get away?'

'Yes, Sir. Unfortunately-'

'Unfortunately!?' Scrimgeour cut off Gawain angrily, 'this is the first one of these Death Eaters we've seen anything of since their bloody escape from Azkaban! The Minister is demanding daily reports on our efforts to bring them in and you 'unfortunately' let him escape'

'Rufus…' Gawain started but was cut off again.

'You even had his bloody wand!' Scrimgeour went on, now turning to look at Gawain. 'Get down to Saint Mungo's. Your partner did her job and brought in Munch. He's undergoing treatment for the Imperius curse as well as being treated for a broken nose. See if he can tell you anything about why he was meeting with Antonin; anything that might help us find him.'

'Anything else Sir?' asked Gawain.

'Just if you come across another one of these damned Death Eaters, you had better not let them escape again, Robards. Final warning.'

'Yes Sir,' and with that Gawain turned and left the room.

Saint Mungo's was bustling with witches, wizards, goblins and all manner of magical creatures. There were even a few ghosts making their way through the halls. Gawain walked through the large stone entrance, gazing up at the tall domed roof, watching as owls circled above, waiting to deliver their mail. A hideously disfigured ghost floated his way over to Gawain from across the space. It resembled the look of an older man however terrible legions plagued its skin, part of the ghostly image of its flesh appeared to be rotting away and another part appeared as if it had been hit by some small explosion. Many of the witches and wizards recoiled as it passed them, darting away as if worried that by touching the apparition they might contract whatever infested its translucent frame.

'Dr Edmond! You look terrible as always, are you here to haunt Mr Munch today?' Gawain called to the ghost.

'Very funny as usual Mr Robards. Always a pleasure to be treating another one of your victims. Do you ever arrest anybody without first physically maiming them?' Replied Edmond, his distaste for Gawain was evident in his voice. Doctor Edmond was a brilliant mind of magical medical science and since his untimely death while experimenting to find a cure for a new kind of skin disease curse, had dedicated his afterlife to the study of dark magical curses and to uncovering the processes to reversing their effects.

'This ones on Savage,' Gawain replied. 'When I left him Munch was fine! And what do you mean "treating" all you can do is send a cold shiver down your patients spines. Unless someone comes in with a fever you're useless.'

Savage appeared just as Edmond was about to fire back at Gawain. 'Dr Edmond is one of this hospitals top advisors Gawain. You know just as well as I do he has over three life times of medical experience,' she cut in swiftly before Edmond had a chance to retort.

'How is Munch?' Gawain asked, completely ignoring Edmond who was now floating away, no longer willing to deal with Gawain's insults.

'You shouldn't be so rude to him Gawain, you know he's a good doctor,' Savage scolded, not answering Gawain's question.

'Yes he is… but I don't like his face. How is Munch?'

'He's still under the Imperius curse, they tried all the usual spell reversal treatments but whoever cast the spell still has a strong hold on him. He's not giving up any information willingly.'

'I need to see him alone.'

'You know Edmond won't let you do that. He doesn't trust you after you used Legilimency on his last patient and put the man in a coma.'

'I had to find out where he sent those cursed bottles of butterbeer! We saved sixteen people from having to be treated in this place and from seeing Edmond's face and one dark wizard went into a coma. Look, I don't care what Edmond won't allow. I need to know what Munch knows.'

'Fine, I'll draw Edmond away for a few minutes but promise me you won't use Legilimency'

'I promise! Just keep that floating pustule away from Munch.'

Gawain slid into Munch's room, letting the door click shut behind him. The room was small and plain. The walls were a stark white broken only by a small barred window that cast a beam of light diagonally across the room. Munch was lying restrained to small hospital bed, his eyes darted side to side behind his closed eye lids. Gawain stepped forward through the beam, casting a shadow across Munch who bolted awake, pulling at his restraints.

Gawain stepped forward pulling his wand from his coat. Munch opened his mouth to protest as the wand flicked in his direction and he froze. Unable to move or speak Munch lay there, mouth stuck half open in a silent protest. Gawain moved forward drawing a small vial from his inner coat pocket, pouring the contents into Munch's mouth Gawain flicked his wand again and Munch reanimated. Sputtering, choking on Veritaserum Munch started to speak but then stopped realising he had just ingested the most powerful truth serum in the wizarding world.

'Tell me who cast the imperilus curse on you!' demanded Gawain.

Munch's eyes went wide and he replied in a dull monotone, 'I never saw the caster, the spell hit me from behind.'

'Of course it did,' sighed Gawain. 'Ok what _did_ you see before the curse hit you? Anything you can remember.'

'I was leaving the Ministry after my night shift on security. I stepped out into the street and I was knocked down by a large man, impossibly large. I started after him but I stopped when he turned, he had long pointed teeth and hair across his cheeks. He… growled. I was too scared to move, then I was hit by the spell.'

' _Fenrir!'_ Gawain thought to himself before asking his last question. 'What did you give to Antonin in the alley? What are they planning?'

'I…' Munch started to speak but his voice choked and his throat locked up. He started to shake and spasm violently. Three bright lights burst into the air above Munch's bed, they let out a loud, long droning sound as they sped off through the walls in search of Munch's caretakers. It wasn't a moment later before Edmond floated in through the wall only catching a glimpse of Gawain's coat pulling through the door of the room as it slammed shut. Two other doctors burst in through the door moments later and rushed to Munch's side.

'There is a second force conflicting with the Imperius curse, we need to prepare a…' Edmonds voice trailed away as Gawain paced away down the hall while Savage came rushing up from further down the corridor to catch up with him.

'What have you done now?' demanded Savage now half running to keep up with Gawain's brisk pace. 'You promised me you wouldn't use Legilimency!'

'I didn't,' replied Gawain in an innocent tone and Savage shot him a sceptical look. 'I used Veritaserum.'

' _The truth serum!'_ panicked Savage. 'Edmond is really going to kill you now.'

'How?' Retorted Gawain with a grin. They passed through the large stone archway into a paved courtyard. 'Take my arm Savage'

'What? Why?' Savage blurted out surprised but she grabbed Gawain by the arm. She felt her feet lift from the ground and her whole body spin and with a _pop_ the pair disappeared from the courtyard.

The ground came rushing up fast as Savage fell. Pulling out her wand she quickly swirled it around herself, a shockwave shot from her feet and she slowed before lightly touching down on the ground. Gawain glanced in her direction, tucking his own wand back into his coat.

'Nice,' he said. 'I really thought you were going to hit the ground again.'

'Well after last time, I came up with a plan for if you ever did that to me again,' Savage replied angrily. 'Which you said you wouldn't.'

'I said I wouldn't do it without warning,' Gawain corrected her. 'And if you remember correctly I gave you time to grab my arm.'

'Where are we?' demanded Savage looking around angrily. They were standing in a small clearing surrounded by wide, tall trees, their branches stretching upwards and outwards blocking out any sky that might have been above. It was dark and cold and a light mist had started to settle among the roots of the trees. Gawain had moved to the edge of the clearing, his back up against one of the wider trees. Savage heard the rustle of bushes as someone approached their clearing and instinctively dropped and drew her wand. A man burst through the tree line, wand drawn and raised. His eyes found Savage and the pair paused in surprise as they recognised each other. The man spun around realising what had happened too late and his wand flew from his hand, landing across the clearing.

Gawain stepped forward, tucking his wand back into his coat. 'That's four nothing to me now,' he started, but was interrupted as a second man entered the clearing, wand raised at Gawain.

'Actually its three to one now,' said the man before jumping in surprise as his wand also went flying across the clearing. Savage stood and dusted down her robes.

'Four nothing to _us!_ ' she corrected the man and Gawain, putting the emphasis on "us".

'Of course,' apologised Gawain sarcastically. 'Williamson, Dawlish,' he added, nodding to the men.

The Aurors exchanged greetings while the two who had been disarmed collected their wands.

Dawlish led the way back through the dense forest. 'We're camped a little way up ahead,' he said. 'You managed to re-Apparate right on the edge of our magical detection wards. How the hell did you know you would trip our defences?'

'Scrimgeour took the time to fill me in on your progress out here,' Gawain answered.

They approached another small clearing and Dawlish held up a hand for the group to stop. 'We're here,' he said.

Drawing his wand and holding it out he began to sweep it back and forth, mumbling incantations under his breath. A circular shimmer appeared, stretching apart and clearing it revealed an ordinary looking tent, pitched in the centre of the clearing.

'Come on in,' said Williamson ducking through the gap in Dawlish's wards. 'Soup's on the stove.'

Gawain and Savage followed, disappearing into the tent after Williamson as Dawlish began to weave the protective wards back together.

Stepping into the tent, Savage let out an excited hum, 'Oh we don't get enough chances to use these,' she said.

The tent was huge on the inside. A circular lounge surrounded the entrance, breaking only to allow access to the outer wings. One of the wings housed an extensive chemistry station. Shelves of potions lined the outer wall of the potions wing. Cabinets of ingredients were oddly packed around the area, where Williamson now stood, bent over a bubbling cauldron stirring in some strong smelling herbs as he added them to the soup. Gawain had moved to the wing on the opposite side of the tent where six beds sat. As he lay down a curtain appeared automatically, drawing itself around the bed frame. Dawlish appeared at the entrance of the tent and walked straight through the gap in the lounge that led to the back wings. Tossing down his coat he plonked himself into a chair at the end of a large table. Pouring over scraps of writings and maps scattered over the table Dawlish let out a long sigh.

'So do you know where he is yet?' Gawain's voice sounded behind him.

'Why Scrimgeour would tell you about our assignment to find Fenrir Greyback I couldn't imagine,' Dawlish started. 'Seeing as it goes against policy for anyone to be made aware of our assignments in case one of us is captured.'

'Maybe I'm just his favourite,' Gawain teased. 'Now are you going to tell me what you know about Fenrir?'

'He's been all around this area, the signs are everywhere. We've found fresh killings scattered all around these woods after every full moon and children from nearby towns have started going missing. What is your interest in Fenrir anyway?'

'Fenrir?' asked a surprised Savage as she joined the pair at the table, taking sips from a large bowl of soup.

'We have been looking into a missing wizards case from the ministry,' Gawain explained. 'Eric Munch worked security until one night, when he was leaving the ministry, he was attacked and put under the Imperius curse. People at the ministry started to notice him acting differently and three days later he finished his night shift and didn't come back to work.'

'And you think Fenrir was the one who cursed him?' asked Williamson, appearing with another three bowls of soup and handing them to Gawain and Dawlish before taking a seat at the table.

Gawain paused to try the hot soup he had just been handed. 'No, I don't,' he continued. 'Good soup Williamson.'

'So if Fenrir didn't curse Munch why are we here?' asked Savage who was happy to have Gawain's plan explained.

'When I used the Veritaserum on Munch he described what happened when he was attacked. He was hit from behind by the curse but not before getting knocked down by a man who, from his description, sounded a lot like Fenrir.'

'So you want to find Fenrir and get him to tell you who cursed Munch?' asked Dawlish, 'I'm choosing to ignore that Veritaserum thing by the way.'

'Well I only promised not to use Legilimency,' Gawain joked. 'We need to know why the Death Eaters have him under the Imperius curse. He's not a high value target, he's not likely to know any secrets they might be interested in and we found him delivering something to Antonin Dolohov.'

'You found Antonin?' asked Williamson, 'what was Munch delivering to him?'

'We don't know,' Savage piped in. 'He managed to get away with the package.'

Williamson coughed, almost choking on his soup 'Ha! The great Gawain Robards wasn't able to bring in his target?'

'Munch was my target actually and we brought him in,' Gawain defended slyly.

'Was Scrimgeour happy with that explanation?' pressed Williamson, clearly enjoying himself.

'That's enough Williamson,' Dawlish cut in. 'Well we had better get some rest then. Tomorrow night is a full moon. We have been staying hidden here when it has come around because we think Fenrir has some of his following with him. But with the four of us here, maybe we can go out and meet them.'

Gawain starred at him for a moment, 'That'll be dangerous… Sounds like a plan.'

'Great,' said Dawlish rising from his chair, 'I'm recording this conversation and in the morning I'm sending it to Scrimgeour; he should know what's going on.' Dawlish moved into the final wing of the tent where a large Pensieve sat. He touched the tip of his wand to his temple and drew out a long silvery string of memories, depositing it into the swirling basin.

The group finished their soup and turned in for the night. The next day, they were going werewolf hunting.


End file.
